Jimmy Fallon reckons Donald Trump’s press secretary lost patience waiting for the right moment to tell her boss she was quitting, and went ahead and did it.
Karoline Leavitt, 28, announced Wednesday she would step down the role of White House press secretary. The youngest person to serve in the post, Leavitt said she wanted to spend more time with her family and be “the best mom” she could to her two young children.
Trump said he respected her decision, but Fallon picked up on reports that the president was blindsided by Leavitt’s departure. Sources told the Daily Mail that “Trump really didn’t want her to leave as he actually trusts her.” Another source revealed, “She was just trying to figure out how to politely step down with his blessing.”
Fallon noted that Leavitt’s daughter is only 4 months old. “Between the non-stop White House construction and Trump, she wanted to be around something quieter: a baby,” he joked.
According to Fallon, Leavitt worked out that her strategy of “waiting for the right moment” was not going to work.
“Trump was surprised by Leavitt’s decision,” said the late-night host. “She was like, ‘I wanted to wait for a good time, but there hasn’t been one.’”
The press secretary gave birth to her second child in May, and returned to work roughly 11 weeks later after a brief maternity leave.
This year, Leavitt has had to answer questions about a series of mishaps, mistakes, and scandals involving the administration: the catastrophic war in Iran, the Epstein files, the president’s disastrous and expensive renovations, and several other departures of top aides.
Fallon continued to mock Leavitt’s untimely departure, saying that Trump is now “blaming her resignation on pool vandals” and that the president is seeking “a replacement who can spin facts and numbers.”
The Tonight Show then featured a gag in which Fallon interviewed a Leavitt doppelganger, who stood by a White House podium and answered questions in her signature style. The show also created a mock song in Trump’s voice to the tune of “Sweet Caroline,” intended as a little “tribute” to his former press secretary.
The NBC host also managed to get in a dig about Trump’s bizarre catering truck incident, after this week’s bombshell story that the president was hidden in an aircraft container and secretly swept away to a plane to dodge a potential assassination threat from Iran. While Trump was placed on a secret aircraft, many of his top aides were left behind on the original plane in Turkey while certain others accompanied the president. According to Fallon, this experience will factor into hiring a new press secretary.
“Of course, when hiring someone, it’s also about personality. You know, you got to think like, ‘Who am I OK being stuck inside a catering truck with?’ You know what I’m saying? You gotta think.”
